Chapter 9
Elowen blinked open her eyes, seeing the tree-filtered light bathing the wall opposite her window. She moved to roll over and groaned at the delicious soreness from sex with Griz.
Her gaze landed on his bare chest, and she had to stifle a moan. He was right there. Justin Williamson and all his glorious muscles right beside her. In her bed!
The number of fantasies she’d had about this man made her a little embarrassed. They’d run the gamut of sweet to so smutty they’d be banned in most countries.
His brown eyes blinked open and his gaze raked over her face then her body and back to her face. The smile on his lips was satisfied, and alluring. He ran a big hand over his face and then stretched. “Morning.”
“We should get up.”
“Ugh. The sun is up. I guess my plan of not letting them know I didn’t sleep there is gone.”
“They may not be up.”
His chuckle was deep and vibrated straight through her. “We usually wake up early.”
“Well, maybe they all slept in.”
He chuckled. “Maybe they did.”
“Want any coffee?”
“Sure. Might as well.” He caught her hand before she could get out of the bed. “So can I tell them about you? I know this is your business and you don’t want people thinking the wrong thing. We could tell them that you’re an old friend and we figured it out. I’ll say I slept on the couch.”
Her eyebrows shot up. “If they ever see my couch, they’ll know that is a lie. But no, I don’t mind your friends finding out we knew each other when we were kids. And I think you just leave out the part of where you slept. There’s no need to volunteer information.”
“I agree.”
“I need to brush my teeth and use the restroom. I have an extra toothbrush. It’s the one the dentist provides. I don’t love them, but I keep them around for cleaning. I would say I kept them around for men to use when they spend the night, but that never happens.”
His smile grew wider. “Thank you. I can get the coffee started before I head to the bathroom.”
“There’s not much to it. It’s a push button machine.”
His eyebrows knit together. “I don’t know what that means.”
She laughed. “I bought a fancy machine to treat myself. It grinds the coffee for me. I’ll show you when you get out of the bathroom.”
She stood and Griz patted her rear as she passed by him.
She laughed and jumped, moving to the main room of her cabin.
Being with Griz felt good. She made sure the coffee maker had water and turned it on.
The unit wasn’t too loud though it ground the beans for her.
The coffee always smelled great, and she loved this process.
She brushed her teeth while the first mug of coffee brewed.
She’d developed some coffee snobbery over the years.
It really came from her time working construction.
Most of the guys she worked with were great, but there was always some idiot who thought it was funny to piss in the coffee or jack off in it if they thought she would be drinking from the pot.
She started buying beans at home and making her own.
If her coffee thermos was locked in her truck, no one could fuck with it.
She took the time to learn about beans and roasters, finding coffees she really loved, experimenting with ratios of beans and coming up with a taste that was superior to what floated around the construction sites.
The fancy machine she’d bought was her reward for saving enough money to buy and rebuild the cabin. She was reaping the rewards of her hard work, and the excellent coffee was one of the ways she celebrated.
“Wow, that is a nice coffee machine.”
“I spoil myself with it.”
“You probably deserve it. The cabin is beautiful.”
“Thank you.” His praise felt good. She was proud of the work she’d accomplished.
She knew plenty of people who started reconstruction projects and never finished them.
Dealing with dry rot and structural issues, along with all the other things like bugs in the walls and insufficient insulation would drive a normal person crazy.
She’d loved every challenge and rose to meet it.
She’d grown and developed new skills. Over all, rebuilding the main cabin had served her well.
Griz looked around her little cabin, which had some of the same finishes as the big cabin. “I’m impressed with what you’ve accomplished. I bet no one back home expected this from you.”
She shook her head. “No, after the accusations and spending time in juvie while they tried to gather enough evidence against me, it was just too much for them. No one thought I would ever amount to anything.”
“Do you have social media?”
“Only for the cabin. But I don’t scroll. I have a person who keeps up with what’s hot with advertising for cabins like mine and they design posts and put them up. I just go on once a week and respond to the posts. But no, I don’t do social media.”
“I don’t, either. So I guess the people from our home town won’t ever know how good your life has turned out.”
She shrugged. “They don’t really deserve to know. Besides, the only person who mattered from there knows.”
It took Griz a moment to realize what she was saying. “Oh, I’m that person.”
Her laughter was refreshing. “Yeah, you are.”
“It’s wild how back then I thought the people around me mattered. I did so much to try to hide the things that were wrong or bad because I didn’t want them to know.”
“I’m guessing your time in the Navy changed things.”
“It did.” He’d been so young when he’d joined up. Luckily he hadn’t done too much stupid stuff when he was a new recruit. He’d seen others do really dumb stuff, like dumb and illegal shit, and he’d stayed away from them.
“You know, working hard changed me, too. I stopped caring what other people thought. I focused on myself and everything changed.”
“I’m glad you did. Otherwise I don’t think I would have run into you again.”
His phone buzzed, and he pulled it from his pocket.
Sharp had texted him, asking where he was.
He texted back, stating that he was fine and that he’d just gone out for a walk this morning.
The guys didn’t need to know he’d spent the night having mind-blowing sex with their host. He could slowly let them know he was with Elowen.
Today he would tell them he’d known Elowen when they were kids.
That wouldn’t be a weird conversation at all.
“You should get back.”
He glanced up, seeing that Elowen was studying him. He reached out and pulled her to him. “I’ll go for now, but I’m telling my friends that you were a part of my life when we were kids, and they’re going to want to meet you. So you should plan on having dinner with us.”
She leaned back and met his gaze. “I’d love to meet your friends.”
“Good.” He kissed her, not going too deep, because if they really kissed, he would never leave.
The walk back to the cabin was filled with birds chirping, and animals popping out of the woods.
He watched a hawk swoop down as it hunted for breakfast. A deer walked across the path about twenty yards in front of him.
The place seemed almost enchanted. He knew part of that was being with Elowen.
She made him feel better, lighter. Happiness filled him in a way it hadn’t for years.
He loved being a SEAL. The job was hard, but he had a lot of fun.
Well, not when they were on a mission, but all the other times it was a blast. Training with his best friends, going through life with them, all their time spent together was fun.
He knew his time as a SEAL was coming to an end.
His knees and shoulders reminded him every evening that his career as a SEAL was limited.
What if he moved out here with Elowen? He didn’t like the city and wanted to be in the country, but he’d grown accustomed to spending every day with other Navy guys. He carried a lot of responsibility in his job, could he take the drop in responsibility?
And wasn’t he jumping ahead by leaps and bounds? What if Elowen didn’t want him here? Maybe they would be the type of couple who got together once every couple of months. Could he actually live with a woman?
Maybe he should just calm down and allow their relationship to develop naturally instead of trying to push things forward.
Whatever happened between them would happen.
He would tell his friends about Elowen being someone he knew from childhood, but he wasn’t going to force a relationship where one may not develop.